There’s opportunity in the realm between knowledge and perception.

That’s what Richard Houng’s company exploited when it decided to license the Westinghouse logo from CBS to slap on lower-priced flat-panel TVs.

BusinessWeek ran the article last week, which brought to light the thin margins that manufacturers are making these days on LCD TVs.

In there, however, is a great point about the power of branding and exploiting consumers’ perceptions. From the story:

Like just about everyone else checking out the flat-panel TVs at Best Buy in Manhattan, graphic designer Roy Gantt came in coveting a Philips (PHG), Sony (SNE), or Panasonic (MC). But after seeing the price tags, he figured a Westinghouse might be a better buy. At $800, the Westinghouse 32-in. set seems like a steal compared with $950 to $1,400 for better-known brands. Plus, the name sounds comfortingly familiar. “I think they make home appliances—things like that,” says Gantt.

He’s right, but that’s a different Westinghouse. In fact, the name didn’t appear on U.S. TVs for more than three decades. Then in 2003, a startup founded by two Taiwanese-American entrepreneurs licensed the brand and distinctive W logo from CBS Corp. (CBS) subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Corp. Today, Westinghouse Digital ranks No. 5 in liquid-crystal-display TVs in North America, with 7.7% of the market, according to researcher iSuppli Corp.

Now, if this guy stares at this screen long enough and then looks at a white wall, what colors will he see?

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 9:55 am and is filed under Design, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.